Inside Monica and C-Murder’s Relationship
Monica has enjoyed a long and fruitful career. A child star discovered at 12, she rose to fame in 1995 with the ever-popular R&B ballad “Don’t Take It Personal (Just One of Dem Days).” She has since sold over 30 million albums, with a bevy of other hit songs and a Grammy award attached to her name.
Beyond her music career, Monica has been known for her relationships with fellow artists, notably her relationship with rapper C-Murder. The couple dated shortly after Monica became famous and broke up sometime later. However, they have remained friends to this day. Find out more about their relationship, split, and current standing below.
How Monica and C-Murder met and started dating
Monica met C-Murder in the late ’90s when they were introduced by rapper Foxy Brown, whose real name is Inga Marchand.
“Inga called me and passed me the phone,” Monica recalled in a 2002 interview with Vibe Magazine. “It was like I had known him forever from that one conversation.”
From there, their relationship moved quickly. Though the artists kept their romance out of the media, Monica gave Vibe some insight into the kind of relationship they shared. She mentioned how C-Murder was by her side when a heart condition caused her to collapse at a show when she was 18 and how he cared for her as she spent a month in the hospital.
At some point, they got engaged after C-Murder proposed during a visit to Six Flags Over Georgia. But they broke up before they reached the altar.
Why Monica and C-Murder broke up
Monica suggested to Vibe that it became complicated to balance their relationship and the demands of their careers, causing their eventual split. “Distance drove us batty. The most I saw him was when I was in the hospital,” she told the outlet.
The remarks appear to be some of the few statements she’s made about the demise of their relationship, though The Boombox reports that her 2003 hit “U Should’ve Known Better” was influenced by their split.
After calling it quits, C-Murder married and divorced someone from his native New Orleans while Monica went on to date a previous partner.
After that relationship ended, she entered an on-off relationship with Atlanta rapper Rocko that lasted from 2000 to 2010 and produced two children, Rocko and Romelo Montez Hill.
Monica then took a break from dating and shifted her attention to her music career. However, she wound up meeting a new man, Shannon Brown, on the set of her 2010 video for “Love All Over Me” (via Madame Noire). She and Brown married that year and had a daughter, Laiyah Brown, in 2013 before divorcing in 2019.
Monica and C-Murder’s relationship now
Despite the split, Monica has shown there’s no love lost. She has been one of his fiercest supporters, especially after C-Murder was arrested and convicted in connection to the shooting death of a teenage fan in 2002. She told ABC News in an interview the same year she “knew for a fact that he’s innocent” and has continued to defend him to this day.
Monica made headlines in August 2020, when she enlisted Kim Kardashian West to help push for the release of C-Murder, who has maintained his innocence. His case has earned renewed attention after two witnesses recanted their testimonies in 2018, alleging that law enforcement officials pressured them into their statements, per ABC News.
The tone of Monica’s posts about his legal woes have sparked speculation that they might get back together in the future. Monica has not directly commented on the rumors, though she made flirty comments about the “Down For My N****s” rapper in her Verzuz battle against Brandy on Aug. 31.
“I don’t know what God holds for either of us, but Corey and I will be the best of friends until the day I die,” she added to Vibe.
